


all the times Catra fell in love with Adora

by unnbrella



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Oneshot Series, aka all the times Catra pushed Adora away, also teenage catra and adora, young catra and adora
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unnbrella/pseuds/unnbrella
Summary: For Catra, Growing up in the Horde was only easy when Adora was there, too.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 50





	1. bullies

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a series of one-shots focusing on Adora and Catra growing up in the Horde in no particular order. So, every chapter they will be a different age!
> 
> In this first chapter, the gorls are 11 years old.

The thing about living in the Horde is you have to learn to get by on your own. There are other people there, sure, and you spend every second of every day with them. So, everyone is your friend but they’re also not, because everyone is just competing against each other from the moment they arrive. Competing to be the best in order to prove their worth.

So, Catra keeps her gaze low as she swings open her locker door, keeping to herself as she always does. Her chest heaves and sweat still coats her skin from the training session she’d just come out of. The distant voices nearby speak words she can’t bother to decipher.

She’d recognized the only other figures when she’d walked in, huddled at the opposite end of the locker room. They’re the kids she had been grouped with in the simulation today. She sees them around the Fright Zone sometimes, but she doesn’t train with them often. They’re only older by a few years but still, no one ever associates with the other age groups.

So, Catra ignores their loud disruptiveness as best as she can. Still, she can’t help but overhear one of the kids’ biting words, practically echoing within the dire room.

“You think you’re better than me, huh, blondie?”

A much smaller, weaker voice speaks up, hardly audible beneath all the other commotion. “I didn’t mean…”

“ _I’m_ top soldier around here. Not you!” booms the older boy.

There are two others hovering nearby, arms crossed and not saying a word. The one shouting is much taller than the rest, with short red hair and arm muscles bulging.

And that blonde ponytail… her frame much tinier than the others, backed against the corner of the locker room. Catra can’t see her very well from the three pairs of broad shoulders that block her view, but that voice is home to her.

“Are you gonna cry?” the teenager continues in a mocking tone. “Are you gonna cry like the little baby you are?”

Of course. Of all the soldiers competing today, Adora got the highest score. It was her first win. She was _so_ happy. She’d immediately ran to Catra afterwards, practically jumping up and down because of her achievement. Without question, the other girl had been ecstatic for her. She may have been the only one that was.

Catra’s chest tightens with rage. “Hey!” She steps out from behind the shield of her open locker door.

With the room suddenly silent, all heads crane to look at her. After a few moments, the boy turns to face Catra completely.

All three of their hard glares pierce into Catra’s eyes. Still, her stone expression remains unfaltering, chin lowered and eyebrows furrowed together. Catra’s not afraid of them. She isn’t afraid of anyone.

“Leave her alone,” she says, maintaining an even tone.

The boy exchanges snarky glances with his friends, attempting to hold back a snicker at that pathetic demand. Threateningly, he takes a step forward. “What are you gonna do about it, cat-girl?”

Catra’s ear twitches in irritation. The name has been heard by her too many times. Still, she’d stopped letting that hurt her a _long_ time ago. It only causes her fists to clench harder at her sides, claws digging carelessly into skin.

The redhead scoffs at Catra’s silence. “That’s what I thought.” Dismissively, he turns his back to her, once again returning all attention to Adora.

Catra’s ears lower, heat rising to her face and eyes absolutely fuming. “I said leave her alone!” She lunges towards the kids, their tall figures towering overhead.

Desperate hands clutch onto the redhead’s arm, struggling to pull him away to get him to face her. At first, the boy remains unmoving, his strength clearly no match for Catra’s own. Then he whips around in an instant, his fist shooting through the air out of nowhere.

Adora shouts her name.

Catra grunts as she stumbles back. Heat boils on her suddenly throbbing cheekbone. When she retracts a hand from her face, a trickle of blood spots her fingertips.

Catra thinks she can hear Adora’s voice again, telling her it’s not worth it. She blocks that out too, because all she can really see is the way the boy is looking down at her right now, like he’s proud. Like he knows he can get away with what he wants.

He scoffs again, eyeing her smugly. He takes another step, but before he can get any closer, Catra releases a vicious snarl from the back of her throat and claws her nails across his face, knocking him into the wall of lockers.

* * *

_Later that day._

Catra hisses from the stinging pain on her cheek, momentarily breaking the silence of the tiny bathroom.

Adora flinches, retracting the cold towel from Catra’s face. Her wide eyes blink from the reaction she’d just accidentally caused, shoulders tensing as if Catra’s physical pain were also her own.

After a second, they both relax as they sit in chairs opposite one another. The word ‘sorry’ hangs on Adora’s tongue, but she remains silent. Catra notices it, her heart tightening just from the soft expression on the blonde girl’s face.

Catra lets her continue, despite the instinct to push the other girl away whenever it begins to hurt. Still, Adora’s touch is beyond delicate as she holds the ice-cold cloth to her newly-formed bruise.

Thankfully, the incident in the locker room hadn’t gone on for much longer after Catra left three bloody scratches across the one boy’s nose.

More kids coming from training had entered the room moments afterwards, distracting the group from whatever conflict that had been started. Maybe it was from the shock of Catra fighting back, but somehow he had let Adora drag her away before the situation got worse.

They both know Catra wouldn’t have stopped on her own, anyway. She could’ve kept going for days. He was also sure to let Adora know that if he had anything to do with it, it was the last time she would achieve the highest score on his watch.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Adora tells her.

Catra turns her head away slightly, eyebrows heavy over her eyes. Yes, she did.

Adora notices her silence. “You shouldn’t keep picking fights like that, Catra.” All it ever does is get Catra into trouble, and Adora never wants to see that.

“I wasn’t picking fights,” she defends, her tone significantly more aggressive.

Adora takes a steady breath. She’s not going to argue with her about that. They’ve done it before. She just… hates seeing Catra like this - letting herself get pushed around because she doesn’t think that she’s worth anything more. Why can’t Catra just _see_ that she really does matter, despite what everyone else says or thinks about her?

“I just don’t want you to get seriously hurt one day, that’s all,” Adora reasons gently. _Especially_ not over her.

It’s bad enough seeing Catra with a giant, scabbed bruise on her face that really only happened in the first place because of Adora, so she really wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something worse ended up happening to her, too.

Catra suddenly rises to a stand, smacking Adora’s hand away from her face. The chair scrapes abruptly across the tiles. “I only did it for _you, dummy_!” Catra shouts, her boiling anger finally erupting.

She had just stood up for Adora from a bunch of bullies and instead of saying thank you, Adora just wants to scold her like everybody else? Why does she even bother? Why can’t Adora ever _try_ to see all the things that Catra does for her?

Adora is too stunned from the other girl’s outburst to even think about what to say to that. By the time she’s processed what’s happened, Catra has already left.

The bathroom door slams shut, leaving Adora to sit there alone, the cold towel still held limp in her hand.


	2. seven minutes in heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The kids are 14 here!

“I know what we can do. We can play a game,” suggests Lonnie. “All we need is…” her eyes scan the rooftop, locating an empty discarded bottle laying against the wall. “Ah! This.” Good thing this place is just littered with garbage already.

“All right. how do you play?” asks an intrigued Adora, her legs crossed underneath her.

“Well, usually you would just put the bottle in the middle,” Lonnie demonstrates, “Spin it around and whoever it points to… you have to kiss them,” she explains with a smirk, as if they are doing something they’re not supposed to.

Catra holds her breath at that, standing a further distance away from everyone with her back against the concrete wall.

“Wait, what?” Kyle laughs, seated next to Rogelio within the circle the four of them had formed. “That’s a stupid rule.” The idea of kissing is so foreign that they can hardly believe it’s a real thing that people… do.

“Okay, you losers have fun,” Catra pushes her back off the wall, arms crossed across her chest, sauntering out from between the two buildings. “I’ll just be over here _not_ wasting my time on dumb kid games.”

Lonnie rolls her eyes at the girl’s typical reaction. “Orrrrr… I can think of an even better rule,” she continues, ignoring Catra. “Whoever it lands on, that person gets to play seven minutes in heaven with them.”

Kyle, Rogelio and Adora all exchange confused glances.

“And that is…?” asks Kyle.

Lonnie sighs at their obliviousness. Yeah, they _really_ don’t get out much. Literally. “You go into a closet together and get to do whatever you want for seven whole minutes. And you’re not allowed to tell anyone about it after.”

Adora scoffs. “Sounds like you’re just making up the rules now.”

“No, I’m serious!” defends Lonnie. “It’s a thing. I remember seeing the older kids play it a long time ago but I was like… eight, so…”

Adora glances around them, eyeing everyone else in the group. “I mean, we’ve got nothing better to do.”

They don’t usually get a lot of spare time in the Horde. All they do is train, eat, train, sleep, and train again. Sometimes they have an hour to spare before curfew if they get let out of drills early, which is how they all found themselves lounging in a narrow alleyway on the rooftop, encased by Horde machinery and very loud, fuming pipes.

“Hey, Catra! Come over here and play,” Kyle calls out excitedly, waving a hand in the air.

“Yeah, Catra. We need a fifth player,” Lonnie adds, directing everyone’s attention towards the girl now standing near the edge of the roof.

“Pretty sure you made up that rule, too,” comments Catra in an unamused tone, her back remaining turned from them.

“Yeah, well it’s _fun_. Something _you_ would know nothing about,” remarks Lonnie.

Catra scoffs, briefly peering back at them over her shoulder. “Yeah. Okay. If I know nothing about it then obviously you don’t need me, so…” she turns away again, aimlessly staring out at the misty orange clouds that tower over the Fright Zone.

“Come on, Catra, it’ll be fun!” beams Adora, still sitting cross-legged against the wall. “Please…?” she adds in a much sweeter voice.

Catra turns over her shoulder once more, captivated by Adora’s pleading eyes that she often likes to use on the other girl. Finally, Catra sighs in defeat, figuring that they’re never going to give up on convincing her, anyway.

“Ugh. Fine,” she rolls her eyes, giving in to their taunting stares. “I’ve got nothing _better_ to do with my time anyway.” With a dead-pan expression, she plops herself down between Kyle and Lonnie who make an opening for her.

“Who goes first?” asks Kyle with an excited grin.

Lonnie leans forward to place her hand on the bottle, letting it spin until it slows to a stop. Everyone’s eyes shift up from the object to the person it’s pointing to.

Catra.

The group snickers at Catra’s hilarious expression, who is just silently staring down at the stupid bottle with disappointment.

She groans dramatically. “I can’t _believe_ you talked me into this,” Catra mutters under her breath, supposedly aiming that comment at a giggling Adora.

Catra spins the bottle with absolutely no enthusiasm and another tired eyeroll, regretting every decision that has led her to this point.

They all watch in anticipation at the rotating object, their stares captivated. Finally, it slows to a stop, pointing at Adora directly in front of her.

Of course. _Of course_ it lands on Adora. Of all people. With her dumb hair poof and those stupid blue eyes that are just _staring_ at her now from across the circle while the rest of the group just bursts out laughing. Why did Catra even agree to this stupid game in the first place?

Underneath all the noise everyone is suddenly making, Adora is laughing too. Although, all Catra can do is just stare back, wondering if her smile is real or not.

* * *

“So…” Adora chuckles. “What are we supposed to do again?”

Catra sits huddled in front of her, both hugging their legs tightly to their chests. Their knees are pressed against each other’s from the limited space.

Catra can hardly see the blonde’s face in the darkness, nothing to illuminate the cramped area but the sliver of light shining underneath the door of the storage closet.

“Uhh… I don’t know,” Catra lies, scratching her hair nervously. “Lonnie didn’t… explain it very well.”

It goes quiet for a bit, both unsure of what to say. Catra figures the others are probably pressing their ears against the door right now, attempting to listen in on whatever ‘action’ may be happening on the other side.

Suddenly, Adora bursts into a fit of giggles, no longer able to hold in her laughter.

Catra squints her eyes through the darkness, confused. “What’s so funny?”

“This is so stupid!” Adora sputters through her laughter. “I mean, we’re just… we’re just sitting in a _closet_!” she exclaims, the ridiculousness of it all finally settling in.

Catra only stares back at her. She tries to force a smile, then her gaze flickers to the floor and her eyebrows furrow angrily over her eyes. “Yeah,” she says, rising to a stand. “Stupid.” She storms out of the room before anyone can ask why.

**Author's Note:**

> Always open to fic suggestions!! :)


End file.
